Joseph P. Jablonski Interview, 22 February 2005

Well, I can't even think of what they called it, but you stood Guard Mount which was inspection and everything before you got on the helicopter or the busses, and they made sure you had all your cold weather gear and everything you know, you were liable to have all that with you. Then they flew you out and if you were on day shift you went right duty. If you were on nights you hit the hay. So I think it was a 7:00 o'clock to 7:00 shift, so we came on at 7:00 that night, and this happened about 3:00 a.m. I believe 2:00 a.m., 3 a.m. something like...

TT:

Between 3:00 and 5:00 was most of the activity. Oh, so you guys had been on all night, what do you do all night?

JJ:

Oh, you'd be surprised.

TT:

Well, explain then.

JJ:

Every time you had, you thought you had a few minutes (laughs) an alarm went off, so we had ten sites. The birds

TT:

But a lot of them reset, right?

JJ:

the birds used to set, no, you had to run them all the same way.

TT:

Which was what?

JJ:

As if there was an infiltrator on the site you know, you had the code to get in, code to get out with the capsule crew, you had plows that used to set off the inner zone if they got too close to the fence because it's all (gestures indicating surrounding fence) because it's all farmland and the vibrations used to set off the alarms, you had birds, you had the reflection of the snow on the antennas used to set them off, so it was constant.

TT:

Do you remember the processes by which you accessed those sites and what area of those sites you had access to? Did you have a key?

JJ:

A site key for the padlock on the gate.

TT:

Right. Did you have that with you all the time or did you get that from the FSC?

JJ:

See, I don't even remember now if we had keys.

TT:

Did you deal with Keys and Codes?

JJ:

Did the... see, I don't remember.

TT:

Now, but that would probably be something that was at the LCF, right?

JJ:

Right, you had the combat crew [that] could turn on the site lights for starters, and then you had to authenticate.

TT:

Was there a phone right there in the Soft Support?

JJ:

No, you did it by mobile radio.

TT:

OK.

JJ:

See, I don't remember now about the keys. I think we did have a key 'cause I remember having frozen fingers, and then you did, first you did an outside check. The SAT Leader would have to round the perimeter outside of the fence. Then you gained access, you got on